The 34-14 victory the Vikings scored over the Chicago Bears on Sunday night might have been the best game all around the team has played since Brad Childress took over as coach in 2006. The NFC North lead was at stake, and also an edge in getting to the playoffs.
Former Bear Bernard Berrian made the key play of the night when he caught a 99-yard pass from quarterback Gus Frerette after the defense stopped the visitors on fourth-and-1.
The Vikings took over the lead at 10-7 and never trailed after that.
There were a lot of stars in this big victory, with Adrian Peterson rushing for 131 yards on 28 carries, including a 59-yard run. Frerotte without a doubt had his best day as a starter, completing 16 of 25 passes for 210 yards and one touchdown and giving up only one interception on a batted ball. He had an 87.1 quarterback rating, compared to the Bears' Kyle Orton, who was 11-for-29 for 153 yards with a 39.1 rating.
But probably the biggest contributors to the game were the defensive players who made one goal-line stand after another and never have been better. Orton was hurried all night and sacked three times, all by defensive end Jared Allen.
Frerotte has been criticized constantly by the local and national media, but Sunday night he proved he still has some life in his arm.
Speaking about the 99-yard toiuchdown pass play that turned the game around, Frerotte said: "We wanted to go deep on them, we finally got a chance to do it. It's great, it's fun to work for. We've got some games left ahead of us; we've got to move on now. We're going to celebrate our victory tonight. The Bears played a great game. You have to give our [offensive] line an awful lot of credit. They came out and played hard tonight."
About Berrian, Frerotte said: "Obviously when you get a player like that, it's huge. So it was nice to get him a long touchdown, it was really exciting for our team. If we can give our defense some touchdowns, they go out and play extremely well.
"It was huge for us, for our team, for our organization, and for what we're trying to do as a team. It was really exciting. It puts us in first place and now we've got to keep working hard. We've got a long way ahead of us, and we just have to take the next game as it comes."
Dome an advantage Bears coach Lovie Smith doesn't believe the Vikings have a home-field advantage playing in the Metrodome compared to cold and windy Soldier Field.
"I think it is hard anywhere to win on the road " he said. "All domes are loud, but we have played in the Metrodome before. It's not like we are playing them for the first time so we know what to expect. Any time you victory get a chance to play in front of a national TV audience it seems to bring it out of the guys. Again, we have played in noisy domes before. I don't know how much of a factor that will be. It is not like it is something new for us."
But the records indicate otherwise. After Sunday's victory the Vikings are 17I-`11 in regular season games at the Metrodome and they are 11-15 in Chicago Viking wide receiver Bobby Wade, a former Bear, doesn't agree with Smith. Wade said the noise of the fans gives the Vikings a big home-field advantage in the Dome and it was proved so as the crowd rattled Bear quarterback Kyle Orton.
Randle honored John Randle had some of his biggest days when he faced the Bears, so it was appropriate that the former Vikings defensive lineman was inducted into the Vikings Ring of Honor when the Bears were the opponent on Sunday night.
Randle, who played for the Vikings from 1990 through 2000 and was one of the best pass rushers ever to wear the Purple, had 137 1/2 sacks in his career, 114 of them for the Vikings and 15 against the Bears. The only NFC North team he had more against was the Lions (25).
Randle, who was selected for seven Pro Bowls during his 14-year NFL career, has more sacks than only five other NFL players in history. Randle, who spent 11 seasons with the Vikings and three with the Seattle Seahawks, sacked former Packers quarterback Brett Favre more than any other player, 101/2 times.
Former Bears center Jerry Fontenot described Randle to the Chicago Tribune as "the most explosive, full-effort guy I played against, and he ran his mouth as hard as he played. He was one of the fun guys to play against. You knew exactly what you were going to get from him on Sunday. He made me a much better player because you know if you didn't bring your 'A' game he would find a way to expose you."
The amazing thing is that Randle, who will be a Hall of Fame candidate for the first time at the next Super Bowl and should be a Hall of Fame player, was signed as a free agent from a small school, Texas A&I in Kingsville.
The Vikings have had a lot of great pass rushers since their inception, but I'm not sure that he wasn't the best. He was an amazing player, and very few offensive linemen could block him.
Jottings Through 11 games this season, Berrian had caught 34 passes for 673 yards and four touchdowns going into Sunday's game. A year ago while a member of the Bears he had caught 54 passes for 733 yards and three touchdowns during the same stretch of the season. So despite all of the criticism of Berrian and the fact he has been playing with a bad toe, there isn't much difference between Berrian's production in the past two seasons. ... The Vikings-Bears game was a sellout, and there are about 4,000 tickets left for the remaining games with Atlanta and the New York Giants. Except for the Packers and Bears games, the Vikings have averaged about 7,000 no-shows. ... Lloyd Lee, a graduate of Bloomington Jefferson High School, is in his fifth year on the Bears staff and his first year as a linebackers coach. Lee joined the Bears staff after three years as a pro scout with Tampa. In college he was a four-year starter at Dartmouth, earning Division I-AA All-America honors on an undefeated team in 1996. ... Smith is one of four members of Tony Dungy's Tampa staff who became head coaches. Herman Edwards is the Kansas City head coach after coaching the New York Jets; Rod Marinelli is the Detroit Lions coach; and Mike Tomlin coaches the Pittsburgh Steelers. Current Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, next headed to join the staff of his son Lane at the University of Tennessee, was also on the Tampa staff under Dungy, as was Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.
Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast once a week at www.startribune.com shartman@startribune.comtime